Earthcaching in Decorah

We took a quick weekend paddling trip to northeastern Iowa. Before we went home, we checked out GC1CEGC Dunning's Spring and Waterfall and GC236R7 Ice Cave - Decorah. We would visit these places even without the chance to score a smiley at geocaching.com

Earthcaches are unique in that they are educational. The two we happened to visit were also very entertaining. In order to log an earthcache, finders usually need a photograph and prove they learned something about the geology of the cache via private email (not log book).

We may be moving to earthcaches only with kids. I think they are burned out on traditional caches, unless they are extremely new and rather easy. Mr. TellBlast and I have no problems with hunting high and low for film canisters, but not the kids.

State Preserves

I was just alerted to an updated resource today, _The Guide to Iowa's State Preserves_. I bought an old copy (didn't look used at all) from a book sale this winter. It was printed in 1992 and entitled _Iowa State Preserves Guide_. By using this page at the IDNR website, I was able to download a digital pdf copy of the guide to make my paper book current to 2001. You can still purchase a hardcopy guide from U of I Press http://uipress.uiowa.edu/books/pre-2002/herguito.htm (There have been five preserves added since then, and they will be added later.)

In order to have a geocache in these areas, citizens are encouraged to create an Earthcache. You can read more here: http://www.iowadnr.gov/parks/rules_regs/geocaching.html

If you're in my area, you can check out Strasser Woods near the state fairgrounds. My girls and I drove up to it on Sat. It's one of those places that you always see the sign for, but just drive on by. It definitely looks worth a hike.

100 Species Challenge #68 Plantain

While out searching for GC1XMPR Wooden a ladder be nice, I passed by today's 100 Species Challenge Plant.

Specimen #68  Plantain 

Plantago major

photo by me

You can read more than you ever wondered about plantain at this local blog (its author is the reason that I was hyperaware of this plant).

I'm much too short to get the Wooden a ladder be nice geocache all alone. I did get this nice shot at Ground Zero:

Cool, eh? Two mushrooms in the hole of a tree, way above my head. I think the tree bark looks like rocks.

Yes, a ladder would have been nice. And don't ask me how I got a shadowy hole under shade in the cloudy late afternoon to look "sunny." I have no idea. It just came out of the camera that way. I don't know that I even double checked my image before leaving the tree. There may be an elf living in my camera case.

The mushrooms picture is my contribution to Sweet Shot Tuesday. You never know what treasures you'll find while geocaching. And I would have participated in last week's Sweet Shot Tuesday -- we had a fantabulouso day at a friend's acreage, and my fave shot from our time there was of other people's kids. )-:

Polk County Cell Phone Audio Tours

My boy scouts did volunteer work this week in a county park to finalize one of the Conservation Board's first cell phone audio tours (read about it here). A few days later, my daughter and I tried the tour. You can see in the picture that she is skipping down the trail. You probably cannot tell that she is holding the telephone. She definitely enjoyed the audio tour, probably because no one was fighting with her over who gets to hold the telephone.

When the understory (as in poison ivy) is not conducive to geocaching (we scouted out a couple, including Firebrand), I still feel the need to get out into nature, either on a bike or on foot. With kids, I tend to stay on well-traveled trails, and a cell phone tour definitely added a new dimension and freshness to the usual trail. You can't change a trail, so I welcome the tours.

There are twenty stops on the tour we took. Depending on your background, some stops are more interesting than others, but all are worth a listen.

100 Species Challenge Specimen #67

Specimen #67 Larkspur
aka dwarf larkspur, spring larkspur
Delphinium tricorne

Photos by me at Browns Woods.

The Latin name "tricorne" refers to the three horn-like fruit pods.

I have seen this plant in a few places in Polk County. Today, I found it in deep woods in different shades of blue. It's very pretty. The leaves are almost fringed, and also very pretty.

These plants are native. They are also poisonous. The Hopi extracted a blue dye from the flowers. Settlers mixed this extract with a fixative to make blue ink.